Adventures in Retail
by SugarPlume02
Summary: Jason never worked retail in his life. That lifestyle was until he enrolled into San Jose State University for aviation. Now, an hour commute away from New Rome, Jason will have to learn how to earn money in a way he never had to earn money before. One shot/Possible Two shot.


**A/N: I felt like writing a quick 1K or so one-shot or two-shot about Jason working retail. I got inspired by a text post, but I wasn't able to get to the content of why I was inspired in this chapter, so I might write another chapter with that content. Who knows. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy!**

You might think that being a demigod excluded you from the mundane experience of working retail. Unfortunately for Jason, New Rome doesn't have a very good aviation curriculum. The closest college with an exceptional aviation program was in San Jose, an hour or so away from the comfort of New Rome. He needed some extra cash, so he had to get a part time job that wasn't being a demigod. Retail just so happened to be one of those jobs.

The interview went pretty well. He looked yuppie enough to receive a position at any high end store, but his resume was unimpressive. Jason never had a part time job in his life, and no previous experience working with people. You couldn't exactly put 'Savior of Olympus' casually on a resume. However, he got lucky and gained a position at H & M.

Jason wasn't sure what he thought retail would be like. Maybe, he thought it would be easier than what it actually is. Although nothing is as physically challenging as fighting monsters every day, working retail was relatively mentally challenging. Or, at least, it wasn't easy. He always had to be positive even when he was having a rough day, always had to be kind to draining customers, and had to listen to orders he didn't always agree with. He didn't know how people did this as a day job.

It was the last point that threw Jason off the most. The amount of times he had to listen to orders from someone higher up. In retail, it doesn't matter if you're the son of Jupiter. If you're at the bottom of the ladder, you're at the bottom of the ladder. You have to climb your way up through hard work and perseverance, and not by privilege. People younger than him but had more experience in the field were able to tell him what to do. Managers who could never have the power he has were able to lecture him about putting clothes on the wrong racks. It was humbling to Jason's arrogant personality: it made him think about how people he lead felt.

Of course, the battlefield and a clothing store were different, but how different? Aren't there ranks and leaders in both? Aren't there people being put on the front lines in both? Sure, the battlefield was more dangerous, but the pepper spray during Black Friday was pretty dangerous too. He got upset when his manager put him on the front lines during Black Friday two years in a row. Did ranks lower than him in the army resent him for making them be the front lines for a battle twice in a row? He'll have to check.

He also couldn't exactly reveal that he was the son of Jupiter to increase his rank. Perhaps the son of the company's president would represent Jason's privilege: they both have to prove themselves, yes, but they had a very clear advantage over everyone else in the company to lead the company. He couldn't even aspire to be H & M's company's president. Did those of the lower Cohorts feel like they couldn't even aspire to be the Praetor? He felt that he improved his cohort's reputation, but now he doubted that it made much of a difference. Everyone still probably felt he just joined the cohort for pity, and that he was an exception to the rule. Frank also became Praetor, but that wasn't given to him as officially as it was given to Jason. He couldn't imagine not being a natural leader or not having such an immense advantage. Children of less popular gods, soldiers not as naturally inclined to be leaders, but who still want to be Praetor, were suddenly a bit more relatable.

Jason could rant about being told what to do by ignorant people that were higher up than him. He used to think that he was wonderful at following instructions, seeing as he always followed what Reyna asked him to do. Reyna's orders always made perfectly clear sense, and he understood why she wanted him to do the chores she asked him to do. When Percy started to give Jason orders on the Argo II, Jason was pretty upset. He thought he was an exceptional, idealistic rule follower, and that he'll follow anyone's rules as long as it wasn't Percy's. That thought only changed when he got to know Percy, and began to reluctantly follow Percy's requests. He changed his state of mind back to his original perception of his behavior, where he believes that he'll follow any order. Now he learned that Percy was most definitely not the worst person to take orders from.

Jason's manager was an absolute mess. He couldn't keep any papers together, couldn't put together a schedule, and always corrected Jason on Jason's technique. Well, the last one didn't quite make him an absolute mess, but definitely sullied his relationship with Jason. Jason despised being wrong. So if he folded the clothes against the manager's wishes, if he hung the clothes up incorrectly, if he organized the back closet incorrectly, the manager would tell him so. And although Jason likes to correct his mistakes, he doesn't like changing something if he doesn't think it's wrong. Once, Jason and the manager had an argument over folding the clothing in the store. It went a bit like this:

Jason was casually folding the clothes the way he learned from Reyna in New Rome. Clean, crisp folds, which Jason perfected through years of being reprimanded. Then the manager came up behind him.

"Hey, Jason buddy, don't fold it that way. The rest of the store folds it this way." The store manager's friendly voice echoed through the air. He followed up his statement with a demonstration of how the rest of the store folds the clothes.

At first, Jason tried to be kind back. As nicely as he could, he responded, "This might sound strange, but I researched the best way to fold clothing. This is how you minimize the number of creases." He confidently took the sweater that the manager just folded and refolded it the way he learned how to.

The manager silently shook his head. Kindly, he replied back, "Perhaps, but the way we do it here is very time efficient, and is more aesthetically pleasing than the way you folded it." Before Jason could even argue back, the manager left as if he had more important aspects to manage. Jason silently retorted to himself that if the manager wasn't letting him reply, than he better be organizing is muddle of a desk.


End file.
